Abstract:

In view of the fact that lecturers have to specialise in two professions, namely that of academic as well as that of educationist, it is unrealistic to expect of every lecturer to undergo training in both fields before he or she is appointed. In order to solve this problem, most universities have adopted a policy of in-service training for lecturers. It is customary at modern universities to entrust the responsibility for such staff development programmes to bureau of higher education. Owing to the tremendous call for accountability during the sixties and due to the fact that this call was very intense in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Europe, these western countries took the lead in the foundation of such institutes. In 1968 the Rand Afrikaans University became the first South African University with a Bureau of Higher Education. It may be stated without hesitation that instructional counseling ought to be viewed as the primary function of a Bureau of Higher Education and that all the activities of such a body should have as its major goal the improvement of university teaching and learning. Instructional counseling could be defined as all forms of guidance, formal and informal, directed towards meaningful improvement of the instructional practice of one or more lecturers. To ensure that all facets of teaching and learning receive the necessary attention, the activities of the Bureau of Higher Education of the Rand Afrikaans University are based on a well-grounded structure of curriculum principles.
The Bureau fulfills its function of instructional counseling by:
-initiating and carrying out research projects regarding university teaching and learning
-promoting the research results in various ways as a form of instructional counseling
-implementing the research results via formal and informal counseling activities and staff development courses.
Apart from the Bureau of Higher Education's contribution towards educational research and instructional counseling at the RAU, the responsibility of rendering a similar service to different categories of other tertiary institutions is also accepted.